Morality Among Atheists

The rise of the "New Atheism" has led to the claim by its major
proponents that atheism is morally superior to theism and that the world
would be better off if the entire population were composed only of atheists.
A new study raises doubts about that claim since the atheistic belief in
determinism is shown to negatively impact moral behavior.

Rich Deem

Introduction

Atheists claim that atheism does not negatively impact moral behavior (or
even that atheism promotes superior morality). One of the core beliefs of most
atheists is determinism - the idea that every prior action affects human actions
and choices. This means that human behavior is ultimately controlled by genes
that control personality, by brain neurochemistry, and interactions with the
environment. In its most ardent form, determinism completely denies the existence of human
free will. In a recently published study, scientists manipulated the belief in
determinism among college students and measured their moral choices
(specifically regarding cheating).1 Contrary to
atheists claims of fostering moral superiority, the data suggests that the
common atheistic belief in determinism undermines moral behavior.

Determinism and neuroscience

A belief in determinism arises from the scientific evidence showing that the universe is
governed by physical laws. For a purely naturalistic worldview, there are no external
forces or deities that influence anything that happens within the universe. By
extension, all moral behaviors and choices are subservient to chemical reactions
of the functioning brain. Beginning in 1983,2
scientists have noted that subject awareness of mental choices seem to follow
brain waves instituting those choices. A subsequent study showed that neural
stimulation influenced a subjects left-right motor choice, even though the
subject reported being in complete control of the choice,3
although other studies have disputed those results.4
Some scientists have interpreted the results of the brain studies to show that the brain makes
subconscious choices that we later interpret as free will choices. accordingly,
we possess no free will, but only feel that we have choices based upon the way
our brains function.

However, in terms of genetics, studies do not show that we lack free will
choices. When questioned about whether we are at the mercy of our genes, Francis Collins (former head of the Human Genome Project) had this to say:

"You're talking about genetic determinism, which implies
that we are helpless marionettes being controlled by strings made of double
helices. That is so far away from what we know scientifically! Heredity does
have an influence not only over medical risks but also over certain
behaviors and personality traits. But look at identical twins, who have
exactly the same DNA but often don't behave alike or think alike. They show
the importance of learning and experience - and free will. I think we all,
whether we are religious or not, recognize that free will is a reality."5

If determinism were true and behavior were solely determined by genes, it
would be expected that genetically identical twins would think and behave
identically, which they don't.

Predetermined moral behavior?

In a recent study, scientists designed two experiments to manipulate beliefs
related to free will and measured their influence on morality as manifested in
cheating behavior.1 The scientists hypothesized
that participants induced to believe that human behavior is under the control of
predetermined forces would cheat more than would participants not led to believe
that behavior is predetermined.

Passive cheating

In the first experiment, randomly assigned subjects were told to read either
an anti-free will passage from Francis Crick's The Astonishing Hypothesis,
or a passage from a chapter on consciousness that did not discuss free will.
Upon completion, subject's beliefs were examined using the Free Will and
Determinism scale.6 As expected, participants
subject to the anti-freewill condition reported significantly weaker free-will
beliefs than participants in the control condition. Following the test, subjects
were given a computer-based mental-arithmetic task in which they were to solve
20 problems. They were told that the computer had a programming glitch that
caused the correct answer to appear on the screen while they were attempting to
solve each problem, but that they should stop the answer from being displayed by
pressing the space bar after the problem appeared. In reality, the computer kept
track of the number of times the space bar was pressed as a negative correlation
with cheating. As predicted, those who read the anti-free-will essay cheated
significantly more than those who read the control essay. For all subjects,
there was a strong negative correlation between cheating and belief in the
existence of free will. In other words, those who believed more in determinism
cheated more.

Active cheating

In the second experiment, subjects were assigned to one of five groups.
Subjects were given free will promoting reading, neutral reading or anti-free
will reading (determinism) material and paid $1.00 for correct answers in
reading comprehension, mathematical, and logic and reasoning problems.
Participants were told that the experimenter was investigating people’s
enjoyment of tasks when they receive feedback and rewards for performance, and
hence that they would receive $1 for each problem they solved correctly. In two
groups (baseline and determinism) results were scored by the experimenter. In
three other groups (free will, neutral, and determinism) the experimenter
checked her cell phone and told the subjects she had to attend a meeting and
that they were to score the results themselves. They were to shred their answer
sheets and take the money they earned. The results are shown in the table below:

Active Cheating Results

Experimental Group

$ Paid

S.E.

Experimenter Scored

Baseline

7.4

0.7

Determinism

6.5

0.7

Self scored

Free Will

6.8

0.7

Neutral

7.2

0.7

Determinism

10.6

0.7

Those participants who were given neutral or free will promoting reading
material paid themselves the same (or less) than the baseline group, which was
paid by the experimenter. However, those who were given the determinism
promoting reading material paid themselves $3 more than the baseline group and
over $4 more than the experimenter scored determinism group. In addition, as in
the first experiment, there was a strong negative correlation between cheating
and belief in the existence of free will. These results showed belief in
determinism promoted both passive and active cheating.

Conclusion

Contrary to the claim of adherents of the "New Atheism" that atheism
promotes moral behavior, certain atheistic doctrines, specifically
determinism, leads to a significant degradation of moral behavior. This is one
of the first studies designed to test how worldview beliefs influence moral
behavior. So far, the claims of the new atheists are not holding up to
scientific scrutiny.